Public servant feared CFMEU boss would punch her in ‘frightening’ meeting

A “frightening interaction” with the former state head of the CFMEU left a senior public servant fearful of a physical assault, Queensland’s inquiry into the union has heard on a day when the union boss also gave his first evidence to the probe.

Office of Industrial Relations executive Andrea Fox, at times breaking into tears, said that after the 2018 incident with then CFMEU state secretary Michael Ravbar, she warned female colleagues not to meet with him alone.

The visit to the union’s Bowen Hills office by Fox and her colleagues, described in Geoffrey Watson SC’s Violence in the Queensland CFMEU report, resulted in Fox being separated from the group and berated by Ravbar in another room, with union president Royce Kupsch also present.

Fox said Ravbar did not address her by name or give a reason for his actions, but told her the union had been watching her, that people like her disgusted him, and she would not be allowed to enter any CFMEU buildings or sites.

Fox had never previously met Ravbar, whose behaviour in the room left her feeling like he might “lose control of his temper and punch me or something”, she told the inquiry, recalling that she had been focusing on his movements for any brief opportunity to react.

When Ravbar eventually went quiet, Fox left the room and Kupsch escorted her back to her colleagues with no mention of what had happened. Fox’s group then left. She told superiors about the incident and felt supported by them, but decided not to file a formal complaint.

Fox said nobody was able to ascertain why Ravbar had acted in this way towards her, and it was suggested that she just put it behind her because “he’s just crazy”, the inquiry heard.

Counsel for Ravbar, Charles Massy, later cross-examined Fox, based on a brief statutory declaration from the former union leader tendered as evidence – the first formal public statement given to the inquiry by the since-ousted union leadership.

Ravbar’s version of events was that the union had decided to “go around” Fox, who was seen as a roadblock to legislative changes – a position Ravbar said he put to her bluntly in the room with Kupsch.

He told Fox he would tell her colleagues that the meeting with them would not proceed, but would leave it to her to explain why.

Under cross-examination, Fox rejected Ravbar’s claim that he gave any reasoning for his tirade, and his assertion that he didn’t say she should be dragged out of the building. She said she also regretted not formally complaining.

Asked by Massy whether the reason that she did not do this, or keep a record of the event,